Spooky Season: Witches

While most of the books did not have "witch" in the title, it was still something that came up.

First of all, there was some fiction that was not great. 

The best of those was The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.

I saw it on a library post for the Shameless Romance Book Club. 

That in itself would tend to put me off, but I decided to go for it. It was at times too cute and I was amazed at how awkward the unnecessary sex scene was, but I didn't hate it; that was a win.

In this world, witches are born and have to learn how to use their power. Fear often gets in the way of connection. I thought the relationships in that area were handled well.

With Spells For Forgetting by Adrienne Young, I believe I saw that someone else read it and was curious about the mystery. That resolution was actually pretty satisfying, except that you have some people who don't seem to be unusually evil doing some pretty twisted things, while other people who should be really motivated just let things go for years. 

I could have liked the book more if the people were more compelling.

The better fiction was The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent, from my Daughters list.

I kept getting it confused in my mind with Gallileo's Daughter, also on that list, but about a different heretic.

This is based on the story of Martha Carrier, executed during the Salem Witch Trials and written by one of her actual descendants. While a fictionalized account, it draws from a fascinating family history. 

Relationships are hard here, as is life, but you can appreciate the struggles and the choices.

Then there was a non-fiction book that was not great, but it led me to a book that was amazing:

In Defense of Witches:The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Challet

There are good points, but then there are attempts to be cute. Some of it could be the translation. 

The premise of looking at the types of women accused of witchcraft and why was interesting, but another reviewer wrote that all of the good points were in the introduction. Well, the introduction was written by Carmen Maria Machado.

However, in reading In Defense of Witches -- and reading about it -- there kept being references to Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici.

The funny thing about that was that it was already on my larger to-read list. It did come up with the word searches, but since it seemed to be more statistical I was going to hold off on it. The various references convince me otherwise.

There is so much in Federici's writing that is interesting and that points to other things to study.

The title is a reference to Caliban from The Tempest and his mother, whom is referenced in the play, but not seen.

The play was written at a time when slavery was expanding, along with persecution of "witches". That becomes the theme of what was going on in society, largely driven by the rise of capitalism.

That actually led me to yet another book (which wasn't as good), but that kind of becomes something else.

We will get there, but I will take one more week to wrap up Spooky Season. 

Increments

Let's say that at this point you are committed to dumping the lawn, but you can't see your path beyond that.

That's still a good start.

There are many directions you can go, and none of them have to be the final destination.

The suggestion you will probably see the most is creeping red thyme. I see stories about it shared a lot, though I don't think I have ever seen someone who has done it.

I am not against it. It will be lower maintenance than grass, it is more interesting to look at, and it is more fragrant, though there could potentially be objections to that. 

It is better for pollinators, in that you do get blossoms before you cut it down, unlike grass.

It is native to Greenland, Europe, and Turkey, so there is a good chance it would not count as a native plant.

That might mean that it feeds some pollinators in their adult form, but may not be good for the larva or eggs or other parts of the ecosystem. It is still a step forward, but it might not hurt to research native ground covers.

One year I got volunteer clover that just spread. I loved it. It was so much springier to walk on than grass. 

Then the heat dome killed it, and it didn't recover quite right. I planted some white clover, and I have some, but I could not recreate what nature had done on its own.

Regardless, it doesn't hurt to check native ground covers for your area. If all you want to do is go away from a lawn, ground covers is the right category to search.

I remember being confused when I would keep seeing various strawberries coming up as a ground cover; wouldn't they be too squishy? Because I was thinking that if it's a ground cover, you walk across it. Then I visited the Willamette Heritage Center. 

The parking lot is two levels, with a pretty steep grade in between. The soil in between is anchored by strawberry plants. It is a ground cover, but not for walking. 

Think about the desired function for your area.

I am going to give you three more ideas.

If this is a holding place, where you think you will want to do more planting next year, you could consider a green manure. That would allow you to use the time in between to build up nutrients in the soil:

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-green-manure-1761842

If you like the idea of the creeping thyme, but maybe not that much red, you might want to consider a tapestry lawn. This could be a chance to mix in some native and non-native plants. If there is something you don't like, it's no longer the whole area:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/tapestry-lawns-why-you-need-this-low-maintenance-grass-alternative  

And maybe if you don't like one patch, you replace it with a bush, adding to the complexity.

Maybe it will be a berry bush.

Finally, to get a broader range of ideas, try reading Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.

There are many contributors for writing, but the artist and architect is Fritz Haeg. 

I promise there will be ideas that would never have occurred to you. Even if they are not for you, it can open your mind to what is possible.

You can find more information at https://www.fritzhaeg.com/edible-estates-book.html.  

Sheet mulching and humanity

I am going to be spending a bit more time on yards than initially intended. That is at least partly because it relates to greater issues.

A few years ago I sheet-mulched a small section of our front yard.

If you are not familiar with the term, you lay down sheets of cardboard or newspapers (if newspapers, six pages thick) and then cover them with mulch and water well.

The way it was supposed to work was that in six weeks I would have a pretty good soil base and it would take out any weeds or grass underneath it.

The positive part of that is that it is still a good piece of ground. Many of the bird and bee-friendly things I planted were perennial and still growing with very little care.

The somewhat flummoxing thing is that it was more like twelve weeks after the start that things actually germinated. I don't know if that was because of the method I used or some other factors.

The unfortunate thing was that it was so much work for such a small patch of ground that I have only tried it one other time, and that was with mixed results.

That means that even though it is much more disturbing for the soil, I am having someone till it to mix in the mulch, and there might even be some spray involved. I am not proud of that, but as someone who is neither physically strong and energetic nor rich, I do have to be practical.

There could be other options that would be somewhere in between in terms of how environmentally friendly they are, but they would also be much more expensive. Back to that not rich thing...

(Plus, most landscaping companies want you to have a lawn, with or without other plants, that they will come regularly and tend to. Even trying to describe what I want gives them the impression I am deranged.)

Regardless, there are two other things I want to mention about sheet mulching, if you are so inclined.

First of all, it used to be much easier to come up with old newspapers. The last time I tried it, I was only able to because someone else had collected some papers when they meant to try it, didn't get around to it, and then were moving and clearing out their garage. The first time, my sisters had ordered some bookcases and I used the cardboard boxes.

You can purchase paper specifically for it, but times have changed and it affects things in ways you don't always expect.

The other thing is where we get to the humanity.

When I was researching sheet mulching, there were things that made sense. For the cardboard packaging, I needed to remove the packing tape. For the newspapers, I didn't use the glossy inserts.

There were comments that all of it was unnatural and bad, that even if the paper was from trees the ink wasn't.

I was worried about that, but it was part of an overall trend that I have seen before.

Some of us will remember Sarah releasing curls to the wind after cutting hair so they could be used in birds' nests in Sarah, Plain and Tall. I once found a post railing against that; that hair is not appropriate material and would tangle the birds feet!

Since some birds do use animal hair -- sometimes longer -- and long grasses, I was not completely sold on that, but I had also seen that you could compost hair and dryer lint. 

No! With your hair dye and shampoos it is all chemical and bad.

You will see similar things about feeding birds and bee houses and pet ownership.

There are things that I am sure are right. I do believe that bees are better off feeding on flowers than leaving fruits out and that leaving food scraps by the road side puts animals in danger of cars. That's completely logical.

I have seen the pictures of angel wing and I know not to feed ducks bread. 

However, if the main theme of the communication is that humans are disgusting sources of contamination... it's not even necessarily that a case can't be made, but that it's not helpful.

What I know how to do better, I will. I will also remain open to learning more and changing how I do things.

I am still here, and I want to be here. I want other people to be here. 

We can work out how to make that better if we have the will. 

That will should not be confused with despising each other. 

I should also note that the warnings about angel wing say what you can safely feed the ducks. The article about not leaving fruits out for bees explained why and talked about how to set up a watering station, which could be helpful.

Some people only have anger and contempt to offer. They are not the best sources. 

Spooky season: From the other side

There were two books that fit in especially well with the theme:

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead by Christine Wicker

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

I had read an article in Smithsonian about Lily Dale that referenced the book. It took me about fourteen years to get to the book, but I did it.

When I was reading about death, trying to be ready for something that still hasn't happened, I read Stiff by Mary Roach. I realized that she had some other books that I was interested in. When she is interested in a topic, she goes all in, and I can appreciate that.

Stiff was about what happens to the body, while Spook is about what science says about the soul. That was partly what experiments they do to try and understand near-death experiences, but there was also a section about mediums.

Lily Dale is about a whole town of full of them.

I had already known something about the topic -- and how to fake it -- from reading about Houdini, especially in David Jaher's The Witch of Lime Street. Reading Lily Dale and Stiff so close together gave some different thoughts.

Wicker and Roach both took classes on how to receive psychic messages. Yes, they have those. 

It is probably easier to take one in Lily Dale than anywhere else.

Lily Dale is a town in New York that started as a spiritualist community. It started after the movement started after the Fox sisters started using "rapping" to communicate with spirits.

One of the sisters -- with another present -- later admitted it was a hoax, but recanted after pressure and continued to provide services. Somehow the community continues. 

There is an organization, but there is not a strict dogma. Therefore different residents may claim to get their messages from fairies or the dead or various other sources.

When I was younger, my tendency was to think that such things were either fake or evil. After more years and experiences, I think there can be many ways of receiving information.

There were two things that were interesting about the classes. 

One is that while you are in one, it can really feel real. I believe it was Wicker who wrote about being in a session where they levitated a table. It was exhilarating, and she was amazed, but something someone said later caused her to wonder. She realized it was a trick. The participants did not know it was a trick -- at least not in the moment -- but what about the person leading the session?

That was unclear. Perhaps they believe they have something to offer and consider some showmanship to be a fair selling point.

They are getting paid for their offerings.

Wicker told many stories of people hearing life-changing things that they needed to hear that could not always be explained by tricks or guessing.

There was something else from Roach's account:

People were more interested in the messages they got for others than the messages others had for them.

That obviously can't be the case all of the time, or there would not be people making money on it. However, that tendency to get inebriated on the thrill of having a message for someone, rather than wanting to know what you can know about yourself, seems like a problem of human nature.

But yes, sometimes you might feel or think or realize something that would be important for someone else.

I bet you could even more reliably -- and more helpfully -- figure out things about yourself.

I also watched a lot of Tyler Henry (the Hollywood medium) clips on Youtube.

Honestly, I appreciate that he is so caring with the people he reads for. Is there something to it? Probably. Would it be something they could hear for themselves? Probably.

Then, at some point -- after I was done and stopped clicking on links for Tyler Henry clips -- Youtube started suggesting clips from the US version of Ghosts.

It looks pretty funny, but with a good heart. 

I could imagine watching that.

Feeling fruity

Although I do not buy from them exclusively, I do like looking at Territorial Seed Company:

https://territorialseed.com/ 

In addition to being family-owned, they are very much focused on this area and heirloom varieties. That is important for me.

Recently they had an offer for your own blueberry patch. You could get six each of three different varieties for under three hundred dollars.

I did not question the value of the offer or the enjoyment my household would get from having a blueberry patch in the backyard. However, berry bushes take a while to establish. We would not get a great harvest this year.

My efforts this year are largely being inspired by this disaster of a government and all of the many things that can go wrong, without knowing which things will go wrong and how soon.

There is some speculation that Trump will declare a state of emergency on April 20th to cement his control, kind of a Reichstag Fire scenario.

I don't know that I really expect that. Mainly, I think about how some people celebrate April 20th; talk about harshing their mellow!

If it does happen, it does not matter what I plant, nothing would be ready to harvest then. 

It would also not hurt that I had planted it. It might make it even more valuable that I planted it.

My point is not to depress or discourage you, but to remind you that we don't know the future; we somehow have to make peace with that.

If we are looking at fruit trees or bushes, expect those to take longer to establish. 

I have grown strawberries from seeds, once upon a time. I got strawberries in the second year. 

That can be fine, but starting with strawberry plants is much faster. Consider what you are doing. 

If you are planting a tree, you probably are waiting at least three years for fruit. You will probably also reach a point where it produces a lot of fruit for a long time without too much maintenance. That just doesn't happen with asparagus.

You also need to think about location. Roots will extend and might cause sidewalks to buckle or branches might mess with your gutters, based on location. You need to make sure there are no pipes or lines underneath before you even get started.

I would gladly plant blueberries in the ground; now they say you don't even have to do too much with augmenting the soil acidity (which I would definitely research more before doing). However, if I am am going to grow blackberries, I know how those spread and they are going to have to be contained. As a harvesting preference, I would not want strawberries in the ground, but on a pyramid or gutters or something.

You also need to think about pollination. For example, there are three categories of blueberries: ones that bloom early, mid-season, and late. Mid-season can cross-pollinate with any, but if you have one early bush and one late bush, there's a good chance you are not going to get any berries.

That means there are things to think about that don't come up with a vegetable patch. There are adorable things too, like learning that there are Romeo cherries and Juliet cherries and the reason they have those names is that even though the fruit is different, both trees produce better when they are planted near each other.

(Which may not be that faithful to the play, but that's a completely separate issue.) 

I don't mind that sometimes you are doing things that take work and planning and time to pay off. If I couldn't handle that, I would drop out of my Master's program.

However, sometimes there are things you are ready for and things you are not ready for.

This year I am only planning on planting annuals, where I should be able to expect everything to die after a good frost. It is lower stakes and lower commitment. I will figure out the next year after that.

It is wonderful to have many options. Trying them all at once is not as wonderful.

And you still need to be okay with the possibility of failure:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/right-action.html

Lots of vegetables

Part of my leaning toward permaculture is creating a better ecosystem. 

Such a system does produce a lot of food, but eating the food you are used to does not necessarily fit into that structure.

A lot of what we eat was developed and bred into something bigger and perhaps with a preferred flavor.

If you want to eat corn on the cob you grew yourself, you are probably going to need to plant the corn into rows; the teosinte that corn is (probably) descended from was more of a grass, and quite small.

You are going to need cages for tomatoes and bell peppers, because the fruits were bred to be bigger without the stalks being bred to be like trees. 

That's just how it is, and it isn't necessarily bad. 

It doesn't even have to be a conflict because it is very common that people with a permaculture food forest will still also have a fairly typical garden patch in addition.

Since we have tended to default to lawns, which are pretty sterile, if you want to convert that to a garden patch it is going to take some work.

That might be part of why square-foot gardening was so popular for a while. It didn't matter what your soil was like, you were putting chemicals in a box. 

I personally do not like that, but I get it. Honestly, if I were to decide to grow carrots I would probably need to do something like that. My area is known for it's heavy clay soil, and carrots don't do well in that.

I don't mind that so much, because the sandy soil where carrots do well is prone to liquefaction in an earthquake; who needs that? However, carrots are a popular and tasty vegetable.

Carrots are special in many ways. Usually with the square-foot gardening method, your boxes are 1 foot high, but carrots require 2-foot high sections.

Still tasty, and another way you might combine things. You could have some boxes with a mix and some things planted in the dirt. 

I can recommend books for either or both of those.

All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening by Steve Solomon.

Solomon goes over many, many varieties; when I first read it I did  not know how you would ever choose. 

I realized that you don't get it all at once. So you try some varieties one year, and then you keep the ones that you like and that grow well, and you try new things the next season.

One thing I will mention tomorrow is native plants, and those generally get planted in the fall. You could try a vegetable garden, decide it's not your think, and fill that area with native plants.

There are a lot of options.

Some of them will definitely fail, and that is discouraging. 

There should also be some successes that feel amazing.

You can find resources through your local extension office:

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/washington

Spring planting

My sisters have a friend who has been overly influenced by Doomsday preppers. Many of the things she mentions would not be bad on their own, even if her understanding is a little off. 

I still think the approach is wrong.

She was talking enthusiastically about planting food and how much you can get with permaculture, especially Jerusalem artichokes.

Ye-es, kind of.

I love permaculture, and should be thrilled to hear people talking about it. It can grow lots of food. It is certainly a better approach environmentally. 

Those things don't necessarily overlap the way you would want.

That's not bad; it just means that you need to consider your goals.

If you do not have any land, this may not be the most useful post, and I am sorry for that. 

There is a lot to be said for growing your own food, especially in times like these. I expect supply chain issues.

One important thing to remember is that a lot of US agriculture is very corporatized and may not involve things that are good to eat. It is not ideal to depend on imports for any type of product. If it's one that's essential for life and you need it all the time, that is all the more reason why local supplies are good.

Permaculture is great for how it can be self-sustaining, environmentally friendly, and healing. Permaculture can benefit all of the flora and fauna, not just the humans. That is wonderful.

Lawns are also incredibly destructive. To really have them looking right tends to take fossil fuels for trimming, chemicals for fertilizer, and it doesn't provide much in the way of food or shelter for any of our pollinators.

Lawns first became popular with the aristocracy in the Middle Ages... does that sound like something that everyone should have? 

You may also have seen people encouraging planting creeping red thyme or tapestry lawns. Possibly also a good idea, though not one that would add to your food supply. 

In January I did write a little about gardening; that post focused on all of the things that can go wrong. 

I have not finished planning what I am going to do this year.

However, the weather is warming up, and the ground along with it; this is the time to think about it.

I will post about different options over the next two days, recommending books and links as applicable.

The starting point is to think about what you have and what you want. If your yard is a play area for children, grass does work pretty well for that.

Otherwise, there are much better options. Some of them are low maintenance once you have them, but they all require getting there first.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/01/three-things-gardens.html 

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2025/03/mindset.html 

Spooky Season Series

Last year I ended up reading the first books in four different series that kind of fit into my Halloween-themed reading, though in different ways.

I had not initially known that I was getting into series, but since that happened and I didn't hate any of them, I decided to go ahead and read the second books this time around.

Next year (which is now this year) I will go ahead and read the third, and then probably let them go. That's not necessarily anything against them, because it looks like some of them could keep going on and on.

We'll see. For now, let's just explore.

Ghost Roads by Seanan McGuire

I have a fondness for ghost stories, especially the ghostly hitchhiker. I first saw one telling in a movie, and my biggest surprise was when it showed up in an episode of Maverick (though it was a con; she was not really a ghost).

I saw the title for The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, and knew that was related. Great. It was, but that was also book two, so I started with Sparrow Hill Road.

In fact, McGuire has created a very complex world of ghost and witch lore, including a soundtrack you can find online. For the first book I found that kind of exhausting; it wasn't that bad here. Also there are some issues here that could be glossed over but are not, which I appreciate. 

The Forge & Fracture Saga by Brittany N. Williams

Someone recommended it on Twitter when the series was new with the release of That Self-Same Metal.

In the time of Shakespeare there are many Black families with strong ties to various Orisha, and whom have been instrumental in keeping the faeries at bay. The fracture there is letting more through, and so faeries keep eating people. Also, there is a pretty strong thread of pansexuality and polyamory. Things get much more complicated in Saint-Seducing Gold.

The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club by Theodora Goss

I had read a good review of The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter and it ended up on my Daughters list. 

Shortly after the death of her mother, Mary Jekyll discovers that her father had another daughter in his Hyde form, Diana. She also encounters Beatrice Rappacini, Justine Frankenstein, and Catherine Moreau, as well as making the acquaintance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Many more familiar names come up in European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman.

They are interesting. I suppose my big conflict is that I loved Dracula, but not Dracula, and I don't really care for the Holmes stories. So when she makes Seward and Van Helsing terrible people and Dracula a romantic hero, maybe it's just conflicting tastes. 

I'll read the third anyway.

Witchlings by Claribel Ortega. 

Ortega was also the writer for Frizzy, which I thought was great. It was a bit more grounded in reality.

I think Witchlings can be good for Harry Potter fans looking for something less hateful. In ways it is more modern. Sometimes there are things where I remember I am not the target age -- probably for tweens -- but there were some surprises. 

This might be the one that I might be most likely to keep up with, though, because there is less of that sense of things growing increasingly more complicated where it feels like too much effort for something that is made up.

Finally, in the realm of keywords leading to other books, when I was looking for "witchlings" this picutre books came up:

The Witchling's Wish by Sarah Massini 

Why not be complete? 

This witchling wanted a friend and found one, though not the way she expected.

In sheep's clothing

If yesterday's post was inspired by other people's concerns, today is about my concern about other people.

I'm going to link to a Clickhole article. You can read it if you want to, but it's not a great site and the headline gives you the gist:

Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point

https://clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606/ 

My worry is not so much terrible people making great points, but that people with good intentions are going to grow more reliant and trusting of these terrible people.

You see, I have not completely given up on us regaining some congressional control in 2026, still being able to have an election in 2028, and that we might once again have a government that is not trying to kill us.

I've always been a dreamer.

As terrible as Republicans have been, a lot of us getting to this point has been the counter-efforts of progressives and leftists who have been sabotaging Democrats at every turn instead of paying attention to Russian interference, often repeating the propaganda.

So I see people re-posting Ryan Grim and articles about Bernie Sanders becoming the leader of the resistance and I feel distinctly less hopeful.

I am aware there is some danger in naming Bernie, as he has loyal fans. I have also been clear about him from the beginning.

The bigger danger is the worse people gaining an outsize influence.

The people who thrive on criticism and strife are going to be making hay now. They have targets and can tap into the anger and ride that wave. They can profit off of it. 

Don't buy it.

Sure, I could list names not to trust, but I would certainly miss some and there will also be more. There were politicians and journalists who seemed to start out pretty solidly back before Trump was a candidate, and some of them have changed. We have seen voters make the same transition.

For someone already named, Ryan Grim popularized Tara Reade's accusations against Biden, despite many indications that it wasn't true. He was also the first to release infromation about Christine Blasey Ford's letter accusing Brett Kavanaugh, which seems like something that could have been good, except that he seemed to be trying to discredit "#MeToo.

Yesterday talked about how some news sources may not always be reliable, but still not always wrong. People are going to be like that too.

As it is, there are people whom I consistently follow whom I disagree with pretty regularly. They are right enough about other things sometimes that it is worth following them, though I generally don't repost them even when I agree. Maybe there is an understandable anger that gets in their way, or a specific issue that overrides everything else for them, but there will be times when they are destructive so I don't want to do anything to popularize them. Is it a perfect system? None of this is.

That one issue that overrules everything else is one of the danger signs. Leftists whose care about Israel's genocide against Palestinians made them fine with selling out transgender people were suspect anyway, given that the current federal stance is much worse. I question their sincerity, then and now.

However, even if they were completely sincere, and Trump was actually going to be better for Palestine but with the same level of destruction for everyone else, should that issue override all others?  Someone who won't even acknowledge nuance is not a good source of wisdom and ethics. That would be true even if they were completely sincere.

That's why I worry about pundits capitalizing on this anger and building loyal followings. Once you decide someone is on your side it is easy to start making excuses for things that shouldn't be excused. If they do disappoint you the fall will hurt much more.

You are better off not having heroes, but accepting people as human with good and bad points. 

There are signs, but if you just post things that make you feel strong emotions, it is easy to miss those signs. 

If someone sounds a lot like the fascists -- so with an authoritarian bent, but about the issues you like -- that is still a bad sign. 

They tend to be racist and sexist, probably ableist and maybe transphobic. It's not that they say it that way, but somehow they are really good at discounting the voices of marginalized people. They maintain the marginalization.

Did I mention that Ryan Grim had this whole thing about how Kamala Harris is so bad at public speaking and must be anxious or maybe drugged came up in the thread, because she referenced a scripture that got hearty "amen"s at Essence Fest?

This goes along with many of the potential action items -- thinking about what you want to share, giving credit to others -- living in a state of constant anger can change your personality and cloud your judgment. Think about it.

It may not matter so much whom you are reading if you are critically engaging with the content.

However, if you want to get a better idea on the people who are more likely to be destructive in this manner, a good keyword search might be "ratfucker".

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/check-in-with-yourself.html 

Information gathering

Since the inauguration, I have heard multiple concerns about how to keep up and whom to trust. I will also often be asked about a specific news source and whether they are reliable.

There is no one answer for that. 

There are sources that print some good things and some bad things, where in this case "good" and "bad" conveys a mix of accuracy, importance, and usefulness. 

Sometimes the bad things are more clearly editorial in nature where they at least aren't going to lie, but what if they are posting accurate information but leaving crucially important things unreported? 

The first thing to note is that this is an exhausting situation. Don't think that there is something wrong with you if you are finding it untenable.

The next thing becomes finding what works for you. Different people have different needs.

A lot of people love Heather Cox Richardson, a historian at Boston College who has started publishing a newsletter on the health of American democracy. In addition to being up-to-date on the current situation, she uses her knowledge of history to provide context, allowing for a deeper understanding.

https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ 

I personally find her posts too long, but part of that is because so much of it is familiar. Some of that is probably a bit of an attention deficit on my part.

If she works for you, embrace that. If not, don't fret.

I will also note that Timothy Snyder has a substack. He is especially solid on Ukraine, Nazis, and Soviets:

https://substack.com/@snyder

Something new that interests me is Musk Watch, introduced today by Judd Legum. It is specifically focusing on what DOGE is reporting and the reality.:

https://www.muskwatch.com/p/introducing-the-musk-watch-doge-tracker  

So far it seems to be focusing on the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the claims, not whether or not any savings would be worth the proposed cuts. That's important information, but not everything. You are not going to find a single source for everything.

Good at being succinct while still backing up her claims is Rachel Maddow at MSNBC.

https://www.rachelmaddow.com/

We love https://ourparks.org/altnps. 

Honestly, we are not at a great point in time for US news. Be open to seeing what organizations based in other countries say. 

https://www.aljazeera.com/

I have previously been pretty happy with The Guardian UK, but I have this vague sense that they are slipping. I am still not outright dismissing their work, but I am not quite comfortable recommending it.

I would say don't listen to Russia Today, but it would allow you to notice how aligned Trump and Musk are with the Kremlin, which seems important. 

I am probably going to have to be changing my methods soon, as a lot of my sources are leaving Twitter.  

There are things that I will look at as I evaluate different stories.

• Are the sources credible? Are there named sources? Are the sources in a position to know?
• Are any other outlets carrying the story? If not, why not?
• Are they showing bias based on the phrasing or images used? Is there an agenda showing?
• Does it contain any obviously false or misleading information?
• Does the headline match the story? 

Often the headline is done by the paper; if you see a crummy headline on a good article, that is not enough of a reason to discount it. However, if you notice one news source keeps using rage-baiting headlines that don't accurately reflect the content, that may be a good reason to avoid that source, if for no other reason than to lower your blood pressure. 

Also, remember that under white supremacy, perspective varies greatly based on your privilege. Make sure that you are hearing from people more marginalized than you.

Habits: Good, bad, and indifferent

As promised, I posted my first letter yesterday.

It was to Amazon. At this point I am only going to post them on Facebook, but if you have questions or want to see any, that can be arranged.

In writing it and drafting the one to Google, I was struck by the power of habit.

I haven't thought of Amazon as a particularly ethical company ever, but I didn't stop using them until Bezos kept the Washington Post from endorsing Harris.

Google used to be great, but their search result quality had been going downhill for a while. 

I found that frustrating, but I didn't actually stop using them until they starting displaying the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

I have actually started doing my searches in a different browser because changing the Firefox automation was more effort than using Microsoft Edge for Bing searches and Firefox for everything else.

Yes, Microsoft is not a great company, and I am sure there is a way I could change the settings and keep doing everything in Firefox. In fact, I am going to try checking out some other search engines to see if anything works better. I know what a good search engine was like, and it was great.

The point is that we easily keep doing the same thing, choosing the path of least resistance, even when we might be happier changing.

Breaking those habits takes conscious effort.

I mention that because I have been meaning to write about things that are going to be harder asks. The potential action items in February were not that disruptive.

One of the things was going to be about reconsidering your 401K, like maybe contributing less to it. Today there is buzz about the stock market crash sinking the value; should I have written that one earlier?

If people were going to read it and decide to cash out their 401K, they may wish they had done that sooner.

There are also reasons for people to not trust my financial expertise, but I might still have some points.

I am going to write things that will sound pretty non-conformist. They can lead to actions, but I am not sure that I will even put potential action items in them. You should draw your own conclusions.

The topics covered are going to be more complex, so any application is going to be very personal. 

However -- before making any decisions, including writing the whole post off -- it's a good idea to think about why you are doing something the way you do it, and whether that makes sense for you. 

February songs

It's really all Mel and Tim's fault.

Sometimes after I go through a round of listening, a song that I had not consciously noticed will start coming back to me. In this case, it was their "Backfield in Motion", a football-themed song.

I knew that with the attacks on diversity, it would really be the wrong month to stop celebrating Black history. I knew I wanted to make it last 30 days instead of only 28. I just didn't have a theme.

"Backfield in Motion" coming back to me sent my thoughts in two directions. 

The first was that after going over all of these years of hits, it might not be bad to go back through. I was only choosing ten out of a hundred, and there were always songs that I liked but did not use.

Also, I could have a football-themed song of the day on Super Bowl Sunday.

I decided to focus on Black artists, which was not a problem. It took a little longer to decide on the other parameters.

In January I had just gotten to 1966, working backwards from 1979 (after having worked forward from 1980 through 1999). I decided to look forward, reviewing old ground. That could start from 1967, where I had just been.

It still had to fit within thirty days.

Although I can imagine a really great review of lesser-known R&B from the 80s and 90s, I ended up decided that I would just go forward for ten years, using three songs per year. Unfortunately, that pushed me past 1969 ("Backfield In Motion's year) by Super Bowl Sunday if I was going in order. 

I wanted to go in order. I ended up giving 1968 an extra song and cutting a song from 1971, which I was okay with.

One kind of fun thing about that is it allowed me to fit in both the 1968 (Hugh Masekela) and 1969 (The Friends of Distinction) "Grazing in the Grass".

As I was working on the list, I saw an article about the first television theme song to hit number 1, 1974's "TSOP (The Sound of  Philadelphia)" from Soul Train. I had just happened to place it on the list. I know I would have listened to it before, but I did not know it's significance.

There are some other interesting things going along with it that are more a part of the overall experience, where it may make more sense to write about them later.

For now, the great thing is that there are so many cool and interesting and good and cheesy and emotional and every other type of song out there. 

It's worth finding more.

Daily songs:

1/31 “Soul Man” by Sam & Dave (1967)
2/1 “Sweet Soul Music” by Arthur Conley (1967)
2/2 “Gimme Little Sign” by Brenton Wood (1967)
2/3 “Slip Away” by Clarence Carter (1968)
2/4 “Dance to the Music” by Sly & The Family Stone (1968)
2/5 “Hold Me Tight” by Johnny Nash (1968)
2/6 “Grazing in the Grass” by Hugh Masekela (1968)
2/7 “Grazing in the Grass” by The Friends of Distinction (1969)
2/8 “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” by Jr. Walker & The All Stars (1969)
2/9 “Backfield in Motion” by Mel & Tim (1969)
2/10 “Band of Gold” by Freda Payne (1970)
2/11 “Everybody is a Star” by Sly & The Family Stone (1970)
2/12 “Ball Of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)” by The Temptations (1970)
2/13 “Want Ads” by Honey Cone (1971)
2/14 “Smiling Faces” by The Undisputed Truth (1971)
2/15 “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers (1972)
2/16 “Oh Girl” by The Chi-Lites (1972)
2/17 “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” by Luther Ingram (1972)
2/18 “Love Train” by The O’Jays (1973)
2/19 “Stir It Up” by Johnny Nash (1973)
2/20 “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray (1973)
2/21 “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” by MFSB featuring The Three Degrees (1974)
2/22 “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” by Aretha Franklin (1974)
2/23 “Show and Tell” by Al Wilson (1974)
2/24 “Fire” by Ohio Players (1975)
2/25 “Walking In Rhythm” by The Blackbyrds (1975)
2/26 “Express” by B.T. Express (1975)
2/27 “Something He Can Feel” by Aretha Franklin (1976)
2/28 “Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) by Parliament (1976)
3/1 “Walk Away From Love” by David Ruffin (1976)

Going deeper

Last week I wrote about feeling that I needed to write letters to more companies:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/check-in-with-yourself.html 

It surprised me. Letting companies know that they had lost my business for political reasons felt morally important, but I doubted that it would be that effective.

I assumed that it would be a way of clarifying my thoughts or maybe reinforcing my assertiveness, which is fine. I didn't expect much beyond that.

As I do it, it seems to be important in two different areas.

One is just a matter of better understanding.

To figure out which additional companies to write to, I took another look at the previous lists. These related to companies contributing to the inauguration and companies going against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

For entities backing down from DEI, some of them are government entities. While it should seem shocking that Public Broadcasting Services and the Smithsonian would back down, they may not really have an choice not to. 

That doesn't necessarily mean not communicating, but is there a different way to do it? Can it be understanding and encouraging?

Also on that list is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There are strong indications that white supremacists have been infiltrating the FBI as well as local police forces, so I don't doubt at all that there are people there who are into all the white supremacy they can get.

They have also investigated white supremacists and sometimes been helpful.

Is there something to say? Would it draw unnecessary surveillance? I don't know, but I will think about it.

Hey look! An article about the FBI investigating white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement on PBS.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement   

It's older, but talk about convergence!

In addition, looking at the donations to Trump's inauguration, the most common amount was $1 million, sometimes $1 million each from the company and from the CEO. However, there are other companies that donated $250,000, where it seems likely that they could have easily donated the full million. Is that a passive aggressive insult? Something resented but that feels necessary to avoid retribution?

I don't know that I can find clear answers, but I am clearly going to need to be doing more searching and trying to understand.

It fits in my wheelhouse.

The other thing is that I have been feeling that I need to post the letters I write. 

Maybe that relates to the article I mentioned Tuesday, about Amazon sales and stocks falling, but them attributing it to shoppers finding lower prices elsewhere. What if it is more boycotting but they don't know? Then more people need to tell them.

Which means I want to try and encourage more people to do so. If capitalism is what we're doing, then corporate decisions have consequences. The people can decide to punish corporations doing bad things.

The way that feels right to do this at this time is posting a letter on Facebook daily until I am done. I will start next week. 

It may give other people ideas. It will probably evolve as I do it more.

That's been the pattern.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/03/perspective.html  

Valuing people

This is a combination of three things, so may be disjointed.

One is that -- of course -- while Republicans are dismantling the government, leftists are criticizing Democrats. The criticism is for only wearing pink and holding signs during Trump's address, even though they were asked to do that and there are people made at them for that too

While it is possible that the people who requested those actions are not the same people criticizing them, the trend of always having more to say about Democrats than Republicans holds. 

(Also, it's weird that Al Green got expelled when Joe Wilson didn't. Almost like there is some kind of double standard.)

I know I say this all the time, but if all you have is criticism and you are directing it in the safest possible direction, I remain unimpressed and uninspired, just irritated.

You can't aggravate people into agreeing with you. Even if that could work, if that resulted in a bunch of people who wanted the same things but did not have any experience in constructing them, that's still not very useful. It's better than glee in wanton destruction, but not enough.

Back to thinking about boycotts, I know I have some writing coming up about withdrawing somewhat from capitalism. Something that makes me remember goes back to the mid-90s, though I don't know that things would be any better today.

One of my coworkers was in this group that was bartering services. She offered house cleaning, and she wanted a massage. There was a masseur in the group, but he thought his service was more valuable than hers. He thought she should clean the house three times for his one massage.

I don't know what current house cleaning rates are. A cleaning might cost more than a massage, but the cleaning almost certainly takes longer. Obviously, you can clean your own house in a way that you cannot give yourself a massage, but given his demands, he obviously was not interested in doing so. That should give it some value right there.

I promise you that while you may not need certification and licensing to clean houses they way you do for massage, it is not unskilled labor, especially if you want your house to actually be clean.

As it is, my mother did clean houses. She charged low rates for many years, and her clients were fine with that. Only one of them ever thought of giving her a raise over a ten year period. They weren't bad people, but they were satisfied with the service they were getting and the rate they were paying; why change? Except that as people who were better off financially they had more power. It also made them far less likely to think about what it was like to not have that power.

Finally, yesterday I read an old conference talk, "Until Seventy Times Seven" by Elder Lynn G, Robbins, April 2018.

He mentioned a physics professor he had at Brigham Young University, Jae Ballif:

After finishing each unit of the course, he would administer an exam. If a student received a C and wanted a better grade, Professor Ballif would allow the student to take a modified exam covering the same material. If the student received a B on the second attempt and was still unsatisfied, he or she could take the test a third time and a fourth, and so on. By allowing me numerous second chances, he helped me excel and finally earn an A in his class.

He wanted to be on the side of the students.

That was very interesting to me for two reasons. 

In my studies now, part of instructional design is seeing what is needed for the students to learn. If the schedule is the same for everyone, but their learning pace is different, you will have students who don't really learn the concepts and just get further and further behind.

(Personally, I went through pre-Calculus, but it did not go through me.)

I think about it more because when you have conservatives trying to take over the school boards, one of the things that really offends them is that students can complete assignments late and re-take tests and still get credit, as if re-taking tests and catching up from behind is not more work.  

While I haven't known most of the candidates personally, I do know one of the voters who was very angered by that. She went to BYU.

It happened at your own school, lady! 

Part of her frustration was that it bothers her that less attention is given to her "gifted" daughter -- like sometimes she gets a good grade but there are no comments to tell her why it is good. Then these kids who aren't even on schedule still get to pass, possibly at a rate that means that they actually learn the content rather than never catching up.

That sounds like a failure of compassion, and it is, but it is also something that is supported by a scarcity mindset. There is competition for resources. If someone is going to lose it has to be these other kids. If they are more likely to come from poorer households, and if by complete coincidence they happen to have darker skin, well... this is a big part of DEI being the current enemy.

I also agree on the importance of positive feedback, but if we do not give teachers endless resources then it may be more important for them to focus on helping the students who are not up to speed yet get there, rather than stroking the ego of the parents of the kids who are at the head of the class.

(I could spend a lot more time on gifted programs, but this is already a long post.)

What I do know is that as long as we prioritize the ability to feel superior and dominate, in our own ways we are not that different from Trump.

Also, as long as I am being repetitive...

DOMINATOR CULTURE! 

Perspective

Much as expected, the economic blackout Friday did not have much impact. In fact, Forbes reports that their sales numbers Friday grew:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirimasters/2025/03/02/amazon-defies-economic-blackout-as-sales-climb-during-boycott/

Yes, I suspect some MAGA driven people did in fact shop extra that day.

Before you get too discouraged, there is another trend happening:

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-shares-tumble-almost-8-frankfurt-2024-08-02/ 

Overall, Amazon sales are declining. As a result, their stock is losing value.

The article attributes it to consumers choosing lower prices, but I question that. If you do a comparison, Amazon frequently has the lowest prices.

I think there might be more people deciding not to shop at Amazon at all. That's been our household strategy.

The thing that is missing is that I haven't sent that letter yet. If we are boycotting Amazon because of Bezos' manipulation of The Washington Post, they should know that.

If many people are boycotting because of that -- or because of other political machinations or anti-union practices or so many logical reasons -- they should know that.

I know I keep going back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but it was such a clear example. 

Yes, they stopped riding the buses, and that had an economic impact. However, there was also clear communication with the bus company and clear demands about what would end the boycott.

There was also a civil suit, Browder v. Gayle, that went all the way up to the Supreme Court, ultimately confirming that the law of the land was that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional. 

Often Brown v. Board of Education is seen as the case overturning Plessy v. Ferguson, but that Plessy was related to public transportation. 

(Brown was two years earlier, and the law was relevant, but did not change the transportation practices in many places in the South, clearly.)

Also, fairly frequently now people will mention Claudette Colvin when talking about the boycott and Rosa Parks; what may not get mentioned is that Colvin was one of the plaintiffs in Browder.

The point is that making change requires cooperation and patience and perspective on those needs as work comes from many different directions over time. Something quick and symbolic may briefly give you a good feeling, but is not likely to effect change.

Protests get attention, but they need to be backed with other pressures. 

That being said, there are proclamations being made that are clearly unconstitutional regarding right to protest. If you get arrested for protesting or wearing a mask while doing so, that could create grounds for a court case that could prove valuable as part of the overall effort.

I wish we had a better Supreme Court, but that's just one part of a much larger problem.

If it has not become obvious yet, a lot of these posts are really more about getting your head in the right space than about the specific actions you take. The better your understanding, the easier it should be to have clarity on what you can and should do. 

Related posts: 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/right-action.html 

Ghosts, especially hungry ones

Ghosts was kind of where it got started, and that's an obvious one, right?

The most obviously belonging one was When the Ghost Screams: True Stories of Victims Who Haunt by Leslie Rule.

Rule covers several haunted places with short accounts. Often there are not many details, and sometimes that seems to motivate some overwriting. The stories are still pretty interesting, they are told with empathy, and I have seen compensating for a lack of details by overwriting done much worse (most recently in J.B. Fisher's Echo of Distant Water). 

Others were part of other reading lists, but hey, there's "ghost" in the title; let's go for it!

Sadly, most of my complaints are here. 

Again, sometimes you think you have some complaints, but then you find something much worse.

In The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson -- from my pathology list -- it is a really great book, but then in the epilogue he starts wandering all over the place, not sticking the landing. 

However, in Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino -- from my Italy list -- he is wandering around all over the place, finding lots of good information but also bringing in lots of things that seem unrelated and pointless, except maybe you need to know he has been in submarines and knows James Cameron. That did not make the book better.

So I can recommend The Ghost Map, though maybe skipping the epilogue. I cannot recommend Ghosts of Vesuvius.

Now, even if it is not a traditional ghost story, the inclusion of "ghost" in the title probably indicates that there is something about death or haunting. Those two featured massive death from cholera in London and even more massive death from volcanic eruption in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Sometimes just two deaths is enough. The death of his daughter and then his wife sends Neil Peart on the road by motorcycle in Ghost Rider. 

I am always interested in the subject of grief, but this came from a list of rock memoirs where I decided to read six and have currently gotten through four of them.

As it is, even though grief is the motivation for the trip, the book is really more travelogue, especially with what he ate and drank and what the weather was like, and how much he looks down on the other travelers, which I did not love. 

I know he eventually remarried and had another child before dying; I am glad for the healing he had. I am not sure that there is really insight other than that keeping yourself busy could be good. 

I found more insight with similar loss in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, but that could also be personality.

While I was at it, I checked out Ghost Rider Epic Collection: Vol 1 Hell on Wheels I had plans to read other books in the series, but I found it pretty terrible. I know the movie gets razzed a lot, and maybe it was the adaptation, but it could be the material.

Bad choices can drive drama and that's important for ongoing series, but do all of the choices have to be so stupid? 

There was one other comic that came up: Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying. 

It was already mentioned as part of the graphic novel reading for last Asian American Heritage Month:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/08/graphic-novels-for-apahm-2024.html

I saw it mentioned in an article and thought it looked interesting. When I looked it up in the library there were some other results that I had to check out. 

The Hungry Ghost of Rue Orleans by Mary Quattlebaum and Patricia Castelao

Bob's Hungry Ghost by Geneviève Côté 

The Hungry Ghost by H.S. Norup

Technically these are all for younger readers, with the first two being children's books and Norup's book being for middle grades.

Bob's Hungry Ghost is the cuter of the two children's books, though both are fine and neither is too scary. Ultimately both are about adjusting to new situations, with initial reactions consisting of either eating everything or sulking (but in a restaurant). 

Emotional regulation is important.

For the older books, the hunger is a little less benign. 

In Ying's work, Valerie has an eating disorder that is tightly bound to her mother, but it doesn't really make the mother a villain either. There is a journey to hard realizations. There is a death -- of Valerie's father -- making some things harder, but all of the haunting comes from the living.

Norup's book has an actual ghost. Fortunately, Freja -- recently arriving in Singapore from Denmark -- finds people who can tell her more about ghosts, including that such a young ghost will more likely be hungry from having missed out on so much in life. As many mysteries as there are about this ghost's life and death, Freja has mysteries of her own, and grief that she still has to face.

Those two were completely different books, but both worked for what they were.

Check in with yourself

I have been thinking about this post for a few reasons.

One is that I keep referring to your intuition or inspiration or what works for you in posts, but that does not always come easily. We are given many reasons to doubt ourselves. 

When you do know yourself -- understanding your weaknesses but also believing in what you do and achieving comfort with your own combination of integrity and imperfection -- that's a beautiful thing.

In addition, I keep getting new thoughts on something I am doing, getting more insight along the way.

Not completely unconnected, I found that I was not doing enough in one of the potential action items I have been blogging and posting.

The "potential" is right there. Even though they were all reasonably small and achievable things, it would still be completely understandable that no one would have to do all of them, including me. Plus, for me, a lot of them were things that I was already pretty good about.

I need to write to more businesses. 

I had thought that notifying Amazon and Google that I would not be using them anymore and a thank you letter to Costco would be enough.

I started feeling that I needed to go back and recheck those lists and write to more businesses. Then I could start learning ASL.

Well, if that's what I should do, then that's what I'm going to do.

Thinking about these, a lot of them circle back. The first one was thinking about what you want; this last one is thinking about what you want to (or feel you should) do.

Thinking about someone you are glad to have in your life and finding something good about a difficult person... those are not completely unrelated, though the differences are important.

Plus, that thinking about someone mentioned maybe taking them soup; that totally goes with the service one.

That's how we do it. We take the information we have, look deeper and choose action, and then we repeat that process as we learn and experience more. 

I am learning constantly. I suspect I could have phrased Tuesday's better by the way some people responded. Even though Julie inspired me yesterday, I discouraged her. I didn't mean to, and I am still participating in the boycott, but what she immediately heard was that nothing works.

No, but most of it doesn't work easily.

In the immediate future, what this seems to mean for me is that tomorrow while I am not buying anything, I will also be writing letters to businesses I will not patronize anymore, or who have disappointed me, or to whom I have something to say.

Beyond that is figuring out what kind of posts are happening in March. The February ones were all fairly simple; is it time to get more complicated?

(Plus start learning ASL.)

If you are still with me, maybe it makes sense to look over the list and see if there is something next there. 

Potential action items:

• Think about what you want.
• Think about someone whom you are glad to have in your life and tell them.
• Get acquainted with your local leadership and bookmark their pages.
• Write to a company you use about their policies.
• Learn sign language.
• Obtain and wear KN95 masks.
• Pick something you find interesting and learn more about it.
• Locate and acknowledge a good quality of someone you find difficult.
• Do something for someone.
• Pause before you post.
• Think about a time when you failed but could live with it.

Finally (at least for February), choose the next action that you will take. 

Related posts:

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2025/02/one-story.html

Right action?

If yesterday's post was about thinking before you post, today is about thinking before you act.

It is not what I initially planned on posting, but there was a brief discussion this morning about the proposed buying blackout on Friday. Julie had read a post about it potentially hurting small businesses and questioning whether it really makes a difference.

For me personally, I am sure I will not be buying anything Friday; that's usually a pretty safe bet. 

A lot of the information I have seen about the proposed blackout is focusing on large companies that have supported Trump or rolled back their DEI efforts. I have seen Amazon, Target, and Wal-Mart mentioned, as well as Best Buy and a more general prohibition against fast food and using credit cards.

The post Julie read pointed out that if you do your normal shopping on Thursday or Saturday, not doing it on Friday won't be effective.

If everyone in the United States truly did not shop on Friday, I do believe companies would notice that. I am also sure that's not going to happen.

Some people will intend to, but forget about it or realize they need something or get hungry and only have time for a drive-through. 

There will be people who haven't heard about it, or who did hear but didn't think it would be effective.

Also, there are lots of Trump supporters and DEI haters. Some of them are passionate enough that they might drop extra bucks at the Target just to show whose side they are on.

This is not me encouraging you to buy anything or discouraging you from participating in activism, 

It is a reminder that change isn't particularly easy. 

This current situation was years in the making. 

Increasing concentration of wealth has made it harder to effectively exert economic pressure and white fragility has been weaponized. The roots of that have been in our country for a long time, but if we look at Lee Atwater's Southern strategy and Reagan's tax cuts and firing of air traffic controllers, we have been heading this way for over forty years.

If there is something easy you can do, that's great, but expect more hard things.

Wonderfully, many of these changes may include things that are ultimately better, more rewarding, less expensive, and healthier.

You should still expect a few hiccups along the way.

Personally, part of my ability to maintain a positive attitude has been accepting the inevitability of failure. Not always, but inevitably sometimes. 

Then I keep trying and sometimes succeeding. 

Being realistic and still caring is a key combination... something about serenity, courage, and wisdom.

Potential action item: Think about a time when you failed but could live with it. 

Wrong question, wrong answer

This is in response to a post people are sharing with a plan attributed to Warren Buffett:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hometown-buffett/ 

I am not saying that Buffett didn't say it. Context is important.

This was essentially a quip made by Buffett when asked about a debt ceiling conflict and potential government shutdown back in 2011. 

People are angry at many things and Buffett is perceived to be good with money, so I get the impulse to share it. I also found the share really annoying.

The Snopes article mentions an encouragement to share (twenty times in the posts I was seeing) which may be part of why it was getting so much traction. 

Now consider the guilt trip of those "most-people-won't-share-will-you" or "only-true-patriots-will-share" posts... does anyone really miss chain letters where you were promised good or bad luck? Why are we still doing this?

I admit I initially thought it was made up. False pairings of people and quotes is pretty common on the internet. I didn't think it seemed likely because generally the smartest financial people don't worry too much about deficits and debts on the government side.

As a quip it makes sense, especially in the context of a debt ceiling showdown. 

Additional context we should remember is that Republicans harp on debt and deficits because they want an excuse to not help people. Republicans never find it a reason to cut defense spending. W's response to inheriting a balanced budget from Clinton was tax cuts for the rich. Debt ceiling showdowns started after that. So, let's remember our history here.

https://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-budget-and-deficit-under-clinton/ 

As it is, theoretically any deficit is being eliminated right now by the cost-cutting measures of the DOGE team. 

Any thinking person knows that the chaos being caused by these thoughtless and destructive cuts will lead to very expensive harm and needs where it is uncertain how they will be met. Regardless, I feel pretty comfortable saying that right now executive overreach is a far more pressing issue than congressional gridlock. I wish there was more opportunity and will for congressional resistance, but that's another story.

Let's just say that congressional gridlock was the issue; there have certainly been times when it was.

Would locking out all the bums be the answer? Regardless of how anyone voted or what legislation they produced? 

Under current circumstances, that will probably get you a lot more Trump supporters. There are so many more of them, and voter enfranchisement has taken so many hits. 

Think about some of the remarkably unqualified people that have been elected in recent cycles; is it really possible to believe that just eliminating every sitting member -- regardless of record or affiliation -- is going to result in a better configuration?

No! It is going to take organization. It is going to take people paying attention to how elections have impact and making choices that will benefit all of us.  

Sharing jokes can be great, but Buffett's quip was not shared as a joke. It was shared as an action item. It's purpose was to tap into a real anger and frustration, but it does so in a counterproductive way.

It may not seem like it matters that much, but I'm going to keep harping on this exhaustion thing. People only have so much energy; don't take up their time with junk.

Republican talking points tend to be things that make you go "Yeah!" not "Hmm. That idea has possibilities."

We don't need more thoughtless reactionaries. I am positive about that.

Potential action item: Pause before you post.

Spooky Season: The Movies

Sometimes -- usually because I think about two books with a connecting word in the titles -- I may base a reading list on that.

That's where the "daughters" reading list comes from. The "trauma" one involved looking up "grief" too, though that list has some related by content but not title words. 

There are various ways books get connected in my mind, but that is one of them.

Last year I started thinking about Halloween, which is pretty normal for me. There were books that related, but also books that had "ghost" or "witch" in the title, whether it was relevant or not. 

Actually, there were some "daughter" books that fit into it too.

I decided reading those books in October was a great idea; next year I would do all the books with "monster" in the title. 

Time happened; I have finally finished the ghost, witch, and monster books and am ready to start writing!

I have written about trying to watch a different Halloween movie each year, so that may be the easiest entry point.

Of course, two years means two movies. 

For 2023 I watched Death Becomes Her (1992), and then The Lost Boys (1987) for 2024.

Well, The Lost Boys was pretty familiar. I had read the novelization many times and seen the play, but there are always things that are different when you are actually watching it. 

The novel didn't make it clear how cowardly the Frog brothers were. I mean, I get that it would be scary, but that plus their eagerness to put down Laddie did not reflect well on them. 

I expected Death Becomes Her to be funnier, but the humor there was quite cynical. I did appreciate Bruce Willis' arc.

This would not be much of a post, except two of the books relate at least partially to movies: 

Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting by W. Scott Poole

Monster Theory: Reading Culture, edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

I was initially too hard on Poole. I disagreed with how he was referencing Ann Rule, I thought he was missing some relevant points for themes he chose, and the conclusion ended up being very weak.

However, as someone who does not like horror, he made me seriously consider watching at least a couple of horror movies based on what he said about them.

If I do, they will be Candyman (1992) and The People Under the Stairs (1991). No promises. 

I am committed at some point to watching The Host and Parasite, for Bong Joon Ho. That's because I believe they have greater points, the same reason that I watched Get Out and Us for Jordan Peele.

Part of the credit I have to give Poole is that he made those movies seem relevant and meaningful.

The other credit I have to give him is that while there were times when I found his book frustrating, I did not find it boring and irritating, a big problem with the Monster Theory book.

When I was searching for it at the library I saw another "Monster Theory" book. I thought maybe I should check that out too. Maybe it would be interesting.

Maybe it is interesting, but I will have to read a lot more books before I am ready to gamble on that.

I suppose one of the keys would be seeing if there are similar authors. 

There was one pretty interesting article on Icelandic revenants by William Sayers and a very well-written article on "Vampire Culture" by Frank Grady, but it was a really long slog to get there. Both of those were in the last section, though I guess that is better than starting out great and then everything going downhill.

One of the really interesting things about Grady's article was that it made me think that Anne Rice stole from Michael Talbot's The Delicate Dependency. Grady didn't say that; some things just sounded very familiar.

Interview With the Vampire was written before The Delicate Dependency, but it sounds like the familiar parts Grady mentioned were from later novels by Rice that came after Talbot. I think that's interesting, but not interesting enough to read her novels.

At least not this year.